Lily Lawson interview

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

A little introduction:

I’m Lily Lawson; a poet, writer, and eternal student. I’m studying for an open degree with the Open University (very mature student!)

I have self-published two poetry collections My Father’s Daughter and A Taste of What’s to Come. My poetry, short stories and creative non-fiction have been published in anthologies and online most recently with Makarelle.

I love reading. My writing friends have got me back reading poetry books and expanding my fiction horizons. 

When did your love of books begin?

When I was a child, like a lot of people I expect. My parents always read to me and enrolled me in the library as soon as I was old enough. I was always there. I don’t know how old I was but I remember the librarian telling me she had ran out of books for me in the children’s section and it was time for me to read adult books. I have always had a book on the go so to speak.

When did you start to have the wish to become an author?

I have written poetry on and off since I was 11. I had the dream of writing from then I think.

Some of my poetry was published in anthologies in the 90’s through ads in newspapers. I felt that was as far as I could go. I didn’t know any poets or writers so I had no idea what to do. People like me didn’t publish books, we got proper jobs, everyone regarded my writing as a hobby. I did proper jobs and kept writing, sharing my poetry with friends and family. It was sporadic, I guess the not knowing what to do with it put me off a bit.

In 2017 I enrolled with the Open University, to fulfil one of my long-held ambitions of getting a degree. We had to join Twitter as part of a module, I did what I had to do and then abandoned the account.

A couple of years later I met someone on Facebook through a Uni group and I wanted to keep in touch with them after I left the group. For reasons that make no sense now I did that through Twitter, that friendship meant enough to get me back on Twitter and get me writing (she’s a writer) using the prompts that people posted.

One of these was the OU 50 words competition. I won one of the days and attracted the attention of the Open University Write Club. I decided to join and to my surprise the friend I met through Facebook was a member.

They were putting together an anthology. My recent success, the lovely welcome of the admins, and my now trusted friend being part of Write Club gave me the courage to submit. They published my work.

A bit later they were working on another anthology, through a conversation on Twitter, I became involved. I found out a lot about self-publishing through that experience and decided to publish for myself.

How have you found the process for becoming an author?

Fascinating. My addictions are learning, writing, reading, and communicating. Being an author, I can do all of them. 

What would you say to those wanting to become an author?

Keep writing. Find people who are wanting to be or are already authors too and keep in touch with them. This can be face to face or virtually. One of the benefits of the internet is geography is no longer a barrier to finding your tribe. I would have quit without mine. Writing can be a lonely business and only a fellow author can really relate to the experience.

Tell us about your book/books:

I have self-published two poetry collections. ‘My Father’s Daughter’ has poems referring to my Mam's dementia, the volunteer roles I had in the church and some of my experiences as I began to take my writing seriously. 'A Taste of What’s to Come' has a selection of poems which will be in future books if they haven’t been published already.

What do you love about the writing/reading community?

The people. I have made some genuine friendships directly and indirectly through Twitter. They have advised, supported, and put up with me through a lot of stuff and I will be forever grateful. I have been very lucky. 

If you could say anything to your readers what would it be?

Thank you, without you there is no point me doing this, your support is much appreciated. 

Where can people connect with you?

This is my Twitter https://twitter.com/lifelovelily22.

This is my website https://www.lilyswritinglife.com/

And this is all my links https://www.lilyswritinglife.com/lilyslinklist